Show Us What You're Cooking! (SUWYC) - Volume 25, Spring 2022

[Panhead John]

Here’s just another reason why AR is so great. If I hadn’t have joined this place, I realistically would never have owned a wok. Because of members here who have them, and post their cooks, I eventually wanted to try it out. As a lot of you know I bought one a few months back and have used it several times. Well, tonight I think I cooked my best meal on it so far.

I’d always been a little nervous about trying Asian stir frys, mainly because of unfamiliar ingredients and unpronounceable sauces. (Gochujang anyone?) The first thing I did which made it easy for me, is to just pick a meat and the vegetables I like. The hell with using specific vegetables I might not like, such as broccoli…I hate broccoli. Then just go from there. I’ve found myself getting a little more adventurous with each cook.

With great advice from many of you, I asked a while back, for recommendations on staples to keep on hand for Asian stir frys. Because I’m not familiar with what some sauces or pastes go well together, I googled it tonight. I wanted to concoct a sauce from things I’d bought for just this occasion….and I love what I found.

A mixture of 3 simple ingredients, soy sauce, sesame oil and corn starch. Wow, what a difference it made in the flavor of my cook. It turned an otherwise decent meal into a really good one. For anyone that might be on the fence about getting a wok, just do it, you’ll be glad you did! Tonight I did a chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice. Turned out awesome, especially with the addition of a little garlic chili sauce mixed in at the end.





PRE-COOKED THE CHICKEN STRIPS


VEGETABLES WERE BOK CHOY, ONIONS, RED AND GREEN BELL PEPPER, JALAPEÑO, GREEN ONIONS, MUSHROOMS AND GARLIC.


AFTER VEGETABLES WERE WILTED, ASIAN SAUCE WAS
ADDED

[Panhead John]

willxfmr Thanks for the link. I actually have all of those except for the Shaoxing rice wine. That’s next on my list.

[gboss]

GochuJohn

[Meathead]

I am reading an loving Kenji's new book "Wok" https://amzn.to/3JKpvAf

[ecowper]

Ribs and cheesy potatoes were on the menu tonight

[tbob4]

I love ribs but I love, love cheese potatoes. My daughter and I cannot eat anything but French Fries (potato-wise) without a bit of cheese.

[tbob4]

Troutman - this is your fault with all your Italian cooking flaunts. You were making me so darn hungry and jealous. I call this Hodgepodge-eroni. I looked in the pantry and fridge and said to myself "I want to cook like Troutman tonight." I proposed my idea to my wife. She rolled her eyes and took the dogs to the back acre to weed. It was a chore I was supposed to have done today. Of course, when the coals started going, the dogs gravitated to me. Hehehehehe. Anyhow, my wife and I agreed that it was the best I have ever done on the BBQ for an Italian dish. The kids would go for my paella (I know Spanish not Italian), but the wife won't eat fish.

Pasta boiled and then mixed with cream of mushroom soup. Sautéed onions (1/2) , garlic (3 cloves), basil (1 Tbs) and oregano (1 tsp) in butter. Added 1 cup of Wine (Merlot) - reduced and added whole jar of marinara sauce. Reduced again and added 1/2 cup of 1/2 and 1/2. Added noodles and sliced chicken. Sprinkled with 1 cup Asiago and 1/2 cup Parmesan.

[Panhead John]

Maybe you should get a phone?

[DTro]

All I can say is...Yes to Hodgepodge-eroni!

[Troutman]

Well I love the look of hodgepodge a roni. 👍

[SheilaAnn]

Ok, got around to doing the chicago thin crust aka tavern style pizza. I defer to my pit brothers from Chicago for advice/critique. Found a recipe from WTTW (channel 2 if I recall). Halved it and here we go. The dough was so wet. A 12” round ended up looking like the state of Indiana after I got it from the peel to stone. 🤣 you can see the seams/creases from me trying to smooth it out. Epic fail.
in my haste and distraction, realized too late I should not have used coarse polenta. I flossed twice 🤣

overall, I was pretty happy! I am a fan of Rao’s Pizza Sauce when I don’t make my own. Hack: add ground toasted fennel to the sauce! It was a game changer for us.

[SheilaAnn]

Draznnl a Steve Goodman song is my ringtone from about mid March until early October.

[Draznnl]

SheilaAnn Don't tell me, let me guess. Is it my second favorite Steve Goodman Cubs song, "Go Cubs Go'?

[SheilaAnn]

Draznnl yessir

[texastweeter]

Wild hog pig in a blankets. I cheated and used a can of crescent rolls instead of making biscuit dough.

[Andrrr]

Yep! willxfmr

[RonB]

I bet they would be great made with pie dough too.

[texastweeter]

RonB I make my pie crust with bacon grease...I bet it would!

[CLB3]

Ribs and beer seemed like a great pairing with watching elite eight games. So, I smoked a couple of racks of loin-back pork ribs. I am currently indulging in them along with Sugar Creek Brewing Company’s (Charlotte, NC) Blood Orange IPA while watching the Houston vs Villanova game. I am a very happy boy right now!

[willxfmr]

Those ribs look spectacular!

[CLB3]

Thanks willxfmr! They were delicious!

[DanMancuso]

Slow cooked some Prime boneless short rib today with Meathead's Red Meat Rub. That stuff is amazing, and so was the meat!

[willxfmr]

Great looking cook. Thanks for sharing!

[tbob4]

Another shot with Meathead in the background. Great job

[Mark-B]

Smoked meatloaf, loosely followed a combination of SNS’s version and cooking with Ry’s (YouTube) recipes. Used the Smokefire tonight with the latest firmware and performed like a champ. When I was done with the meatloaf I cranked it up to 600 degrees and grilled a burger for my son which is not a huge fan of meatloaf. Turned out great!

[tbob4]

Fantastic meatloaf!

[Skip]

Meatloaf for the win! Looks Delicious.

[SammyJ]

Started doing stir fry, today, I prepped two 1 pound packages of sirloin, 8 hours at 155, should leave them just right for stir fry.

[Old Glory]

Tried something new. Sous Vide boneless skinless chicken thighs for 3 hours then coated with Stubbs BBQ Sauce and crisped over direct heat lump charcoal. Was very very tasty though the thighs were a touch dry. Sweet potato home fries and steamed broccolini.

[tbob4]

What do you think made them dry? SV temp or time on the grill?

[Old Glory]

tbob4 I think it was temp and time in Sous Vide bath. They were really good. Next time I will try 155 for 3hours. Time on grill was super short just caramelizing sugars in the BBQ Sauce.

[fzxdoc]

Hard to imagine that a 3 hour sous vide would dry out chicken thighs. I'll keep that in mind, though. Thanks for sharing your findings.

Kathryn

[texastweeter]

Venison meatloaf, garlic parmesean mashed taters, green beans

[Jfrosty27]

Winner

[tbob4]

Restaurant photo

[RichieB]

Hot sausage with pepper and onion on a pretzel roll. I baked the rolls today. Not enough room on roll for whole sausage. Each roll 75 grams. 1st time with this recipe from Pioneer Woman. Soft pretzel texture. Wanted roll crispy. In toaster a couple of minutes. Recipe called for 1/3 cup brown sugar. Really a unique taste with the sugar. Have done other recipes. Most sugar was teaspoon. I liked the taste.

[58limited]

Cheese burger. I made 45 lbs of venison beef hamburger meat today. I added the lean trim from the two ribeye roasts that I dry aged last month. Turned out awesome!

[troymeister]

In Honour of our Ukrainian Sisters and Brothers. Some Chicken Kyiv tonight.

It is a dish I have worked hard at to make well.

But obviously tonight, it is very bitter sweet. My heart goes to all those who are suffering. May this mayhem end soon!

[Panhead John]

Beautiful cook.. and words, I agree 100%.

[treesmacker]

Very nice!!

[Troutman]

I like the cous cous !!

[Michael_in_TX]

I am actually surprised I managed to keep this dish edible. Wow, so many things tried to go sideways.

Let's start with the meat. Back in early January, in a momentary lapse of reason, I had instacart pick up some beef shanks for me. Clearly, my instacarter has no idea what beef shanks were supposed to look like, so I got these three that were thin cut and mostly bone. Annoyed, but not wanting to waste meat, I vacuum-sealed them and put them in the freezer.

Needing room in the freezer, I decided to smoke and braise the things this afternoon. I didn't realize it when I had vacuum sealed them, but there really was a lot of bone. One piece barely had any meat. (I wonder if these were intended just for stock?)

Still I seasoned them up with Meat Church (Matt Pittman)'s Holy Cow Rub (a Texas-style beef rub) and smoked them on my Chimp at 250 F until they hit 150 F internal.

I then whipped up some mushroom gravy thingy: 1/2 cup of butter with equal amounts of flour....shallots.....garlic....Worcestershire.... .and mushrooms. I placed the shanks in a foil pain, covered them in the mushroom gravy, and added enough beef broth to cover. I then covered that with foil. That went into a 275 F oven until they reached 205 F and/or were tender.

While that neared 205 F, I did some in-a-box scalloped potatoes. For whatever reason, tonight my Chimp really struggled to stay at 450 F. (If I had realized the potatoes needed that high of a temp, I probably would have used the oven for that and not the Chimp) so they took far longer than I wanted and didn't brown up well.

The beef did shred a bit and was very tender; however, the total amount of meat I got on this was less than what you'd put in two tacos! After three-four hours of cooking, I want more than two tacos!

I will do this again, but with shanks that look like shanks and a more traditional osso bucco recipe.

And UH lost so bleh on that, too!

Here are the shanks about to be pulled off the Chimp. Look at the one on the right. That is nearly all bone except for this thin ring of meat around it. The middle one is mostly bone with just two small lobes of meat on either side. The one on the far left is more what I was expecting, just this little wedge of bone.



Totally didn't get any photos of the braising part, but here are the potatoes cooking.



Plated up before the sauce. I did get a nice smoke ring, so there is at least that. And the meat did at least taste smoked!



With the mushroom-butter-garlic sauce.

[SheilaAnn]

Yeah, sounds like you got "soup bones" instead. But way to turn the cook around!

[Towering Inferno]

Food with a great story to go with it makes it the best food.